Dive Brief:
- In Colorado, a recall vote has ousted a conservative school board that previously gained national attention when it demanded a new A.P. U.S. History curriculum that stressed, in part, “positive aspects of the United States” and respect for authority, free enterprise, and individual rights.
- Some view the ouster as a victory for voters over corporate and/or private interests in education.
- The Huffington Post reports that efforts leading to the recall vote were actually a "proxy war" between teacher unions and education reform advocates.
Dive Insight:
Although the recalled school board — which saw existing AP US History as encouraging or condoning “civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law” — was conservative and funded in part by organizations backed by the conservative Koch brothers, the article notes that the two opposing sides of the recall efforts weren’t necessarily divided by political party lines.
“Democrats who wanted to protect funding for charter schools campaigned against the recall,” the Huffington Post reported, “and Republicans who resented the new board members’ tactics campaigned for it.”
The larger issue of private interests seeping into education reform efforts will continue to play out on the national stage, as powerful forces including the Koch brothers and the Walton Family Foundation play with various incarnations of the privatization of public education. Such efforts can undermine voters because, for example, publicly-funded charter schools that are privately operated continue to face serious questions around accountability, transparency, and the veracity of their performance metrics.